Today, vehicle seats generally have a back rest which can be swiveled about a horizontal axis vis-à-vis a seat part. Fittings of modern vehicles—in particular of utility vehicles—have armrests. One type of these armrests is fixedly attached to the back rest via a connection part. The initial angle of the armrest thereby changes when the angle at which the back rest is set is changed. To compensate for the angle the known armrests are housed rotatable about a point of attachment, which is formed as a swivel axis, near to the back rest. To make it easier to enter and leave, the known armrests are stop-limited in their folded-down use position and can be swiveled into a position parallel to the back rests. Thus, the angle of such cost-favourable embodiments can be adjusted, but their individual height cannot be adapted to the body size and the wishes of the driver. This problem has thus far been solved by means of suitable servoelements, such as long-hole bores and adjustment screws, through which the armrest attachment—i.e. in the area of the connection part between armrest and back rest—was adjustable. Changing the height with these means is however on the one hand very expensive and furthermore can be integrated into an appealing design only with difficulty. Another previous possible solution was to set the height of the armrest cushion through airbags or gas-filled foam cushions, in which a fill level and thus height, once preselected, is maintained by a check valve. However, such designs are at least as expensive as those above.
An armrest is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,341,821 B1 which is movably attached to a guide rail aligned horizontally in the direction of travel. It can be fixed at any chosen point along this rail by a clamping joint. An armrest cushion is arranged above the guide rail and connected to the clamping joint via a connection part with an oblong hole. Both the height and the inclination of the armrest cushion can be changed vis-à-vis the guide rail via the oblong hole and fixed in the desired position by means of a clamping joint.
An armrest is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,860 which is attached rotatable via an axis to a back rest of a vehicle seat. The angle between back rest and armrest basic body is set by means of a spindle. At the end of the armrest basic body remote from the back seat there is formed a rotation axis by means of which an armrest cushion can be tilted about a rotation axis formed parallel to the swivel axis. The angle between armrest cushion and armrest basic body can be set by a spindle.
An armrest for a vehicle is known from US 2002/190550 A1 which has an internal body which is fixedly connected to the vehicle seat and an armrest cushion which can be rotated about this internal body and can be locked in at least two different angle settings. Thereby it can be achieved that either one narrow edge of the armrest cushion or its broad edge points upwards. The rotation axis corresponds to the internal body aligned in the direction of travel.
An armrest is known from WO86/03167 which has a rail fixedly connected to a vehicle seat. An armrest cushion can be attached to this movable in longitudinal direction and fixable to it at any chosen point. In addition to the longitudinal movability of the armrest cushion the angle of the armrest cushion relative to the seat surface of the vehicle seat can also be changed with the help of a tipping mechanism.
By vehicle seats are meant in this application in particular seats for motor vehicles, utility vehicles, rail vehicles, aircraft and spacecraft.